Homemade Yogurt

On one of my favorite websites (Backyard Chickens), I found a fantastic and EASY PEASY way to make homemade yogurt! No machines required! I love mine with just a drizzle of honey on it. YUM!

Easy Homemade Yogurt Recipe

I am not posting the actual recipe because, if you read through the thread, there are so many tips and suggestions for this yogurt.

It's one of the easiest recipes I've found to make yogurt and uses no machines.

Why use paper towels?

Do you use paper towels? Here's a tidbit of information you might find interesting.

As I was reading Diana's blog, she posted this:

"The following facts have been floating around in the twittering/blogging world. Check them out.

Fact: About 900,000,000 trees are required to feed America's paper consumption each year, according to the Clean Air council.

Fact: With over 90% of US households taking the advantage of the convenience of paper towels, we produce over 3,000 tons of waste each day."

PAPER TOWELS! Good grief! That's insane! We've used cloth napkins in our house for over 10 years, just because I prefer cloth to paper. I even try to use re-usable wipes for cleaning up messes, etc. I do buy paper towels, but only for the messiest of messes. One roll of paper towels can last us a month or more. I'd love to give them up for good, eventually.

I make my own re-usable (un)paper towels by cutting 12x12 inch pieces of flannel and just serging around the edges. That's it. They last forever! I keep a stack by my kitchen sink and use them as I used to use paper towels. The only time I use paper towels is for really yucky messes, such as draining greasy foods. I just toss them in the wash with the towels. I buy flannel when it is on sale really cheap, or when I can find remnants.

Do you use paper towels? Do these statistics surprise you? I wonder if there will be any tree left on our Earth for my grand-children or great grand-children?

Take a look around on this link, you just may be surprised.

Ten Things You Should Never Buy

Be that kind of woman

I just read this on The Harwards blog this morning!

"Be the kind of WOMAN who, when your feet hit the floor in the morning, the Devil says 'OH NO! SHE'S UP!' " as quoted from Sheri Dew.

Loved it so  much, I just wanted to share.

Steakhouse Salad

This is a re-post, in part, from my old blog.

Twice, my ex-husband and I have ate at a certain steakhouse restaurant. Twice he ordered this particular salad. Twice he raved insanely about this salad.

I finally asked about the only component I could not identify; it was Balsamic Glaze.

A week or two later I made the salad and NAILED IT! He raved insanely about MY salad.

I found a tutorial for the balsamic glaze online, here.

My observations of what I call Steakhouse Salad:

• I DO NOT like blue cheese dressing.
• I will try this salad with other dressings to see if I like it. (Ranch, Thousand Island, Italian)
• Balsamic glaze can be used in many, many dishes.
• Balsamic glaze can be purchased ready made, but from what I’ve read, it’s not nearly as good as making it yourself.

You can find the complete recipe on my recipe/food blog; Recipe Roundup. Enjoy!

Everything's done

After today, everything will finally be complete for our foster-to-adopt licensing. Whew! It's been so crazy trying to get it all done, while at the same time getting unpacked and things put away from our move.

We are so excited! Our first prospective new son arrives in one week!

Baby Girl and Buddy are doing wonderfully! Mike and I are researching breeds and are considering going into breeding. Dairy goats are our main focus. Kinders (Nubian and Pygmy cross) are a new and upcoming dual purpose breed, but we keep leaning more toward the Nigerian Dwarf. Baby Girl and Buddy are Boer goats, and although they seem to be a good breed to invest in, we really want to stay with dairy breeds. We'll see.